


Ad astra per aspera

by QueenOfPlotTwists



Series: Yu-Gi-Oh June 2020 Prompts [21]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Panic Attacks, Pop culture vampire references, Rated for Deadpool's Language, Traditional Vampire References, Vampire Sex, Vampire references, Yami Yuugi needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:01:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24878869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfPlotTwists/pseuds/QueenOfPlotTwists
Summary: "Through adversity to the stars,"-utterance generally used to describe the overcoming of adversity resulting in a favorable outcome.After barely escaping Bakura, the cantankerous vampire who lives in the creepy-supposed-to-be-abandoned-mansion-down-the-street with their lives, Atem and Ryuji come to a horrible realization: vampires exist! And now one is after them (or rather after Atem and Ryuji just happens to make an appetizing snack). Time to form a battle plan!Yu-Gi-Oh June Prompt Challenge 2020Week Four: Air Day 23: Tradition
Series: Yu-Gi-Oh June 2020 Prompts [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770298
Kudos: 8





	Ad astra per aspera

**Author's Note:**

> Continuing the Vampire Conspiracy series is so much fun!!!
> 
> Theme comes from "traditional" vampires ;) See what I did there?
> 
> Warnings: Lots of swearing, boys cursing, boys freaking out and an onslaught of pop culture vampire references. Enjoy! and Sorry ladies, no Bakura this chapter :(
> 
> Yu-Gi-Oh June Prompt Challenge 2020
> 
> Week Four: Air Day 23: Tradition

**Ad astra per aspera**

"If there's one thing real vampires seem to have in common, it is their reluctance to tell the world about who, and what, they are."

—Kim Wall

Atem and Ryuji dropped—Atem to his knees, Otogi all but sprawled out on the plethora of pillows and blankets that made up the nest they usually camped out on whenever he spent the night. Relief and exhaustion was so thick and palpable, they felt drained from it.

“Ho…My God,” Ryuji sprawled out giddy with survivalist adrenaline.

“Holy shit.” Atem collapsed next to his best friend, exhausted. He rubbed his face and ran a hand through his bangs ready to pass out and never wake up. “I can’t believe we’re alive.”

“I know!” Ryuji sat up, his bright and wild. Excitement firing his blood, he shot up declaring. “This is fucking amazing!”

Atem stared at his best friend with a mixture of shock and insanity. “What?”

Ryuji answered his unasked question when he screamed out as loud as he could while still whispering—conscious of Mr. Aky asleep upstairs—“Vampires are fucking real!”

That fact—and after tonight it _was_ a fucking fact, no matter how much Atem wanted to pretend or deny that it wasn’t—stupefied him.

“Vampires are real,” he parroted, blinking absentmindedly.

“I know.” Ryuji sounded like a child at Christmas and nearly bounced up and down he was so happy.

“Vampires are real.” Atem said again like saying it over and over again would somehow not make it true.

“I know!” Ryuji cheered again, spinning to his best friend, oblivious of his inner turmoil. “You know what, forget our bet, I won’t even hold you to it!”

“Vampires….” Atem squeaked out, his hands shaking, his left eye twitching, his eyes widening, moments away from a mental breakdown. “Vampires are fucking _real_!”

That was it the damn broke. Atem grabbed a pillow slammed it against his face, as if in a spirited attempt to smother himself and screamed until he couldn’t scream anymore. All the while Ryuji was dancing around the room, cheering like he’d just won the lottery.

“Oh my God!” Atem panicked, pulling his head up when it became clear this wasn’t a dream and reality wasn’t going away. “Vampires are fucking real!” He stood shaking, his hands trembling and he didn’t know if he should laugh, cry, scream, tear out his hair or do all of the above. “Do you know what this fucking means?”

“Hell, yeah, I do!” Ryuji was in full blown nerd mode. “This means that everything in the universe as we know it is possible! Oh my god!”

“Vampires are real,” Atem said again frozen in a state of shock. “If vampires are real? What else is real? There could be werewolves? Or shape-shifters.”

“Yes!” Ryuji agreed, ecstatic.

“Flesh eating mermaids.”

“And faeries, and witches, or I guess, all people with magical powers.”

“Would necromancy count?” Atem blinked, his historical side taking over. “Would that mean zombies could be real? Like actual reanimated corpse servants, not those annoying flesh eating symbols for greed and consumption like on Walking Dead and shit?”

“Man, you really hate that show, but my God! The possibilities, are literally endless!” Ryuji spun to him and made fireworks exploding gestures with his hands before spinning around. “Oh my God, this is easily a hundred times cooler than Armageddon! I swear to God!”

And then Atem exploded. “Fucking shit man, there is a fucking vampire after us! How the hell are you not freaking out! I’m freaking out! Am I freaking out? Oh God, I don’t know any more!” Atem became a jumbled, rambling, pacing mess until he finally collapsed from it all and dropped onto the giant armchair and sank into it. It welcomed his wake like a giant hug and he needed the comfort, too freaked to even curl into a ball. “There’s a fucking vampire trying to eat us.”

“Oh shit, you’re right,” Ryuji didn’t sound anywhere near as worried as he should be. “But don’t worry, Temmy, you’re fine.’

Atem stared at him, in stunned disbelief. “What? I just said a vampire wants to eat us and you’re okay with this?”

“Oh no, dude, I’m freaked out as shit, but right now I’m still high on the fact that there’s a real live actual vampire living in our town and that fantastical creatures are real. Or could be real. I mean, come on man how long have you known me? How long have I wished, _begged_ , the universe for something like this and now it’s actually f-ing happened? This is like finding the portal to Narnia! ‘Cept better.”

“That’s true,” Atem couldn’t help but laugh. “You’ve been trying to see faeries since we were in first grade, even after everything I told you about them.” Atem couldn’t help but feel relieved by the memory. “It’s why I liked hanging out with you. You were the only person who didn’t think I was weird for drawing maps of everything during free time.”

“You were the only one who didn’t think I was weird for wanting to go on magical quests during free time.” Ryuji remind.

It had been the basis for their friendship: two weird kids who loved books and other worlds and exploring, but while Atem was a history buff, Ryuji’s foretell was fantasy, but they both loved adventures. And magic and historical monsters. And interestingly enough, research.

“You know terrifying as all this is,” Atem couldn’t help but laugh, and it was a terrified laugh, the kind born from adrenaline and excitement after having your pants scared off and he was drunk on the rush. “I still can’t believe there’s an actual vampire in this town. I mean, shit man, I thought we’d go into that house, turns out it was empty or worst case scenario we find some homeless guy, come home and laugh it off, but this…this…God, I don’t think I’ve ever been this scared and fucking excited in my life! I mean, you know, now that I don’t feel like banging my head against the wall.”

“I know!” Ryuji agreed with the widest possible smile and a squeak of excitement, pumping his arms up and down.

“Of course,” Atem continued suddenly breathless. “Now the questions is, how do we keep that blood sucker from, you know? Sucking our blood? We _did_ just totally piss him off. And I thought my dad was cranky when he woke up early.”

“I believe you mean how do we keep him from sucking _my_ blood.”

Atem blinked.

Ryuji rolled his eyes and smirked. “Come on man, it’s not your _blood_ he wants to suck.”

Atem’s face suffused with color, turning so red, he thought he might explode. “What are you talking about?”

Ryuji groaned in aggravated humor. “Oh for crying out loud, Temmy, he wants to _feed_ from me, but he wants to _fuck_ you.”

Atem looked like he’d just fainted from shock.

“Tell me my darling,” Ryuji leaned over the arm chair towards him, whispering in his cheesiest, dorkiest horror-movie-Dracula voice. “Are you... _virginal_?” He shrieked when a pillow smacked him in the face and sent him tumbling backwards.

“Dude!” Atem laughed with a grimace and shuddered despite his laughter. “Don’t _ever_ fucking do that again. Oh-ho, my God.”

“Well, how do you think, I feel man.” Ryuji chuckled, picking himself up and pulling out his headband and pony-tail rubber letting the inky locks spill out. He shook his head then redid his pony tail. “I thought I dreamed that shit. Do you have any idea how relieved I was to learn it was vamp hypnosis?” They both burst out laughing then. “Don’t get me wrong, Tem, I love you to death, but I do _not_ want wet dreams of you boning other guys.”

“Oh my god, man, shut up!” Atem tossed another pillow at him but the rocking laughter of his body screwed up his aim.

They laughed until they were out of breath.

“Seriously though, that guy’s gonna be back and we can’t hide out in my basement forever. So what are we gonna do? You’re holy water didn’t seem to do jack.”

“Hey, knock it all you want this Holy water saved our butts?” Ryuji protested, retrieving his lost vampire-slayer tool kit pack and pulled out the now empty water bottle. He turned the back upside down and grimaced at his supply stash with inadequate disappointment.

“I think it surprised him more than anything else,” Atem snorted and rearranged himself so he was sitting cross-legged on the arm chair, finally remembering to take off his hoodie and boots. “Where the hell did you even get Holy water?”

“I took it to a Christian church and asked the priest to bless it.” Ryuji said unflinching then grimaced when he saw the unused garden stake he’d backed. “Probably a good thing, I didn’t get to use this.”

Atem arched a brow. “And that didn’t get you some strange looks?”

Ryuji shrugged. “Still worked. So did the salt.”

“Again, pretty sure that was more surprise than it actually hurt him.”

“It burned him didn’t it?”

“Yeah, ‘cause you threw it in his face. You’ve ever got salt in your eyes? That shit stings like a mother.”

“Salt is the ultimate defense against evil according to every source. If that shit doesn’t work then we’re screwed.”

“Unless he’s actually, you know, not evil, just a vampire?”

Ryuji stared at him, holding a necklace of garlic like it was infected. “You know what you might be on to something, Tem.” He spun around and sat cross-legged. “I mean think about it? We’re discussing an _actual_ vampire, here? How do we know if anything we know about them is true or some bullshit someone made up?”

“Until an hour ago, I thought everything quote, unquote _true_ about vampires was some bullshit someone made up,” Atem said flexing his fingers to demonstrate air quotes. He rolled over and leaned over the armrest: chin in his and flashed his friend a wry look. “That being said, I’m pretty sure it’s safe to roll _those_ out.”

Ryuji looked bewildered then followed Atem’s pointed finger to his latest accessories. He grimaced and slipped his cross necklace collection off in one, wiggling struggle and dropped them back into the pack. “Guess not.” A thought came to him. “Then again, I wonder if an actual silver cross or rosary would do something?”

“Would _any_ religious stuff work?” Atem asked suddenly curious. “I mean, one, we’re assuming vampires are followers of Satan and two, neither of us are Catholic.”

“Would it have to be Catholicism, technically?” Ryuji asked, pondering heavenward as if expecting an answer. “I mean there are how many branches of Christianity as a whole?”

“I don’t know man, I’m Coptic orthodox,” Atem said running a hand through his hair. Then jumped up. “Hold on, I got an idea.”

“Where are you going?” Ryuji asked watching him dig through drawers and desks then, finding nothing, head upstairs.

“To get a steno pad,” Atem answered over the stomp of his steps.

“For what?”

Atem peeked his head around the landing, russet eyes blazing with a triumphant smirk. “To do what any good Archeologist professor and Historian’s son would do: organize my research.” He made it two more steps before peeking back down and asking. “Want me to grab you some pajamas while I’m upstairs?”

X X X

“Okay,” Atem plopped back in his favorite armchair with a clipboard and steno pad in his lap and a pen behind his ear, relaxed and focused in red pajama shorts and a _Powerline_ T-shirt and fuzzy shark slippers wrapped in his favorite _Nightmare Before Christmas_ fleece blanket. “So starting with what we know about traditional vampires, I’ve written down everything we know and then divided it into Yes, No or Maybe, meaning we need to do more research, category. So,” He grabbed his pen and clicked it, started jotting down notes while Ryuji, stripped to his undershirt and a pair of borrowed sweat pants, combed through the Netflix.

 _“_ Crosses, we’ll keep as a maybe until we can test actual ones. Can’t enter the house is a yes. Salt, is also a maybe. Holy Water is a definite no. Speed is a yes, though, not as fast as a car. Strength is a maybe. We didn’t really get to test that one.”

“I don’t know, man, he sure left some pretty bad _dents_ in my car,” he hissed bitterly, growling at how annoying it was to type stuff into Netflix. “What am I looking for again?”

“You bought a mustang convertible, those things are fragile as shit, what did you expect?” Atem snorted. “And _Mysteries at the Museum: Vampire special_. I have _The Night Stalker_ and _The Librarian: Judas Chalice_ on DVD. Oh and pull up the second-to-last episode of _Supernatural_ Season One. I think that’s the Vampire episode.”

Ryuji’s arched brow accompanied an Are-you-kidding-me frown.

“Hey, you want me to consider _Twilight_ we’re starting our research with something that’s _actually_ researched based.”

“ _Moonlight,_ Atem, _Moonlight_. God, don’t _ever_ mix those things up again!” Ryuji shrieked. “ _Twilight_ is the bland, boring adaption of a bland boring book about a no-personality heroine and sparkly pricks. _Moonlight_ is a legit drama with an actual vampire culture, biology, law system, and shows how they blend into modern society that could offer some answers to the traditional and non-traditional ideas.”

Atem snorted through his smirk. “I suppose next you’ll want me to consider _True Blood_?”

Ryuji smacked his forehead and rubbed his face with a disgusted groan. “Fuck that. The books were _so_ much better.”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Atem threw up his hands in defense, knowing exactly where _that_ conversation was going to go and returned to his notes. “Speaking of which, and hear me out, given we’re researching what’s real and what isn’t, you think we should consider, well… _Twilight_ ’s poisoning thing?”

“You mean the possibility of vampires being venomous?” Ryuji asked.

Atem nodded.

The brunet pondered. “It’s possible, I mean it’s not the first source I’ve read to mention vampirism as an disease, infection or some kind of virus as its origin? And thus by default the primary method of turning. Although,” he shuddered then and nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “I doubt either of us wanna go _that_ deep into our research, right?”

“Oh _hell_ no,” Atem agreed at once. “I like being able to stuff my face with junk food whenever I want.” He grimaced at the thought of a blood-only diet and flipped to a clean page. “Okay, so let’s put turning methods on a different page: being bitten, drinking blood, being drained of blood then drinking blood. Wasn’t there another one?”

“Yeah,” Ryuji chimed in. “Drained of blood so it appears to be a death-like state, drink vamp blood to replace it and then you have to be buried in a cemetery and awaken as one of the undead.”

Atem jotted it down. “No idea how’d we test that one. Though, I guess we could ask him, if we were really desperate. Speaking of that, pretty sure we can rule out the coffin thing too, unless that bed we saw counts.”

“Nah, that one’s definitely a bust. Oh, which reminds me, put no reflection in the maybe pile to. I mean, I sure didn’t see him in any of my rear-views but it was dark and we were trying to get away from him so I don’t think that counts.”

“Agreed,” Atem nodded, taking notes. “And to be safe we should probably eat a bunch of stuff with garlic in it tomorrow. If nothing else our bad breath should chase him off.”

“Well, if he’s got keener senses, I wouldn’t like the smell of garlic either. What about silver?”

“I thought silver was werewolves?”

“Historically and mythologically speaking, werewolves branched off of vampires so technically silver should work on both of them.”

“Alright, we’ll call that a maybe for now. I’m gonna put sunlight in the maybe pile, too. There’s _way_ too much controversy there.” Atem snorted into a snicker. “Though it’s a pretty safe bet he doesn’t sparkle.”

Ryuji almost slipped and fell into the cable box, but caught himself on the TV stand, and was trying—and failing—not to laugh. “I don’t know,” he barely managed to choke out. “That white hair looked pretty shiny to me?”

Neither of them could help it. They burst out laughing and laughed until Atem was practically rolling off his chair and Ryuji had collapsed to floor holding his stomach and beating a pillow with his fist.

“Just fucking put on _Lost Boys_ and we’ll go from there,” Atem ordered, barely able to contain himself. “It’s gonna be a long night.”

“I sure as hell wasn’t planning on going to sleep,” Ryuji agreed and pressed play.

**Author's Note:**

> Modern teen dialogue is SO much fun to write!  
> Pretty sure I got everything related to traditional, old school vampires for them to test but let me know if I missed anything.
> 
> Extra points to anyone who knows what the Powerline reference is from!


End file.
